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FEATURE REVIEWS:

Cameron Dezen feature picCameron Dezen -- Love + Rescue
On Love + Rescue, her first album since 2000's acclaimed Mary's Daughter, singer/songwriter Cameron Dezen raises the stakes. Instead of opting for a traditional band and strings, like most singers in this genre would do, Dezen uses samples and electronics as the backdrop for most of the songs on the album, which not only gives the album a modern sound (think Frou Frou), but helps keeps the songs fresh. It's rare that subdued rhythms and low-key drumbeats work this well -- producer Matt Hammon also handles a lot of the Love + Rescue's programming and instrumentation, along with David Rice and bassists Ben White and Rigo Flores, and when coupled with Dezen's beautiful piano work, the result is often stunning... [more]

Jet By Day feature picJet By Day -- The Vulture
Atlanta's Jet By Day have spent the better part of a decade trying to find their feet. Shuffled from label to label -- most recently, the financially unfortunate Kindercore -- and struggling to tour effectively, the band has received precious little attention oustide the southeast, despite their obvious talent and exciting live show. Frustrating. Similarly frustrating have been the band's records, 2002's The Feedback that Distracts Us and 2003's Cascadia, both of which redefined the band's sound only half-successfully, tempering a handful of perfect tracks with a balance of four or five B-sides. Neither record was hard to like, but nor were they easy to love... [more]

DMBQ feature picDMBQ -- Essential Sounds From the Far East
DMBQ's Essential Sounds From the Far East is the best record I've gotten in six months. By far. Yeah, some of them were free, but I paid for some, too, and we're talking about sixty or more CDs, here. If you're hard to impress, and you like hard music, seek out DMBQ, quick. I'd pay Best Buy prices for this record, and am writing this review to try to convince you to do just that. (If you have to.) Just as a quick note, by the way, I've been turned on to Japanese bands before. And DMBQ is my favorite band right now, period. I'm not giving 'em any credit for being Japanese. At all... [more]

The A Frames feature picThe A Frames -- Black Forest
I'm nowhere near an authority on the noisier, dirtier end of the post-punk spectrum, I have to admit. I own no Gang of Four CDs, never much liked the Melvins, and couldn't tell you which Jesus Lizard CDs I've actually listened (there were a few, back in college, but I have no clue which they were). Granted, this is probably not a good thing to cop to right at the start of a review of the latest A Frames album, Black Forest, but I feel it's only fair to display my non-cred with the Amphetamine Reptile/Man's Ruin/Touch & Go crowd (Arcwelder excepted, anyway) up front... [more]

Jean Grae feature picJean Grae -- This Week
What the hell happened? Where did all the female rappers go? It wasn't all that long ago that Queen Latifah was a rapper, not an actress, Missy Elliott was all over the charts, and Sister Souljah was bringing down the wrath of presidential candidates. Since then, though, the hip-hop world's been overrun by the likes of the Wu-Tang, Tupac, Puffy, and lately, 50 Cent and Kanye West, and there's nary a woman in sight. The best you're likely to get if you're listening to hip-hop radio is Lil' Kim, and man, she's just plain scary. What happened to people like Mary J. Blige? MC Lyte? Hell, Salt-N-Pepa? Mainstream hip-hop is a man's world, no two ways about it... [more]

Murdocks feature picMurdocks -- Surrenderender
Most of the press blurbs about the Murdocks name-drop other "garage" acts like the Strokes, or Hot Hot Heat, et al., but you know what? I call bullshit on that one. The Murdocks kick the crap out of any and all of those bands within their first few chord strums. This three-piece from Austin sounds like they're just about to explode on every track, with music chock full of the very incendiary energy that any of those media darling garage acts tries so hard to capture through empty posturing. All you need to do is to look at the pictures of the band, actually... [more]

Sondre Lerche feature picSondre Lerche -- Two Way Monologue
You'd think this Norwegian kid, Sondre Lerche, was a Swede the way he has assimilated several decades of music and turned it into a series of perfect, Wilsonian pop songs. I mean, Brian Wilson doesn't sound this much like Brian Wilson. Not any more, at least. Okay, to be fair, Lerche does cop some Nick Drake and Summer Teeth-era Wilco, but c'mon -- they were just borrowing from Wilson, too, weren't they? The steeply ascending and descending oohs, ahhhs, and ba ba ba bums. The strings. The harpsichord. Two Way Monologue has it all. All but anything new, that is... [more]

Sage Francis feature picSage Francis -- A Healthy Distrust
Going by what I'd heard off of Rhode Island rapper Sage Francis's previous effort, Personal Journals (his first "real" solo album, after nearly a half-dozen CDs self-released on his own label, Strange Famous), I wasn't really sure what to expect of his latest, A Healthy Distrust. Would it be more sensitive, backpack-wearing indie-hop meditations on love and loss, the kind of personal introspection raps that wouldn't sound out of place at a poetry slam where the hipster kids are all cafeinnated, self-consciously smart, and alternately cynical and sincere? Or would it be closer to his Non-Prophets collab with Joe Beats, Hope, which mined a little bit of a darker, harder, more political vein?... [more]

Laura Tsaggaris feature picLaura Tsaggaris -- Proof
Why do people do this to themselves? Folks, let me give you a quick glimpse into the murky realm known as ReviewerLand: appearances do matter. No, I'm not telling you how to dress or that you need to bathe regularly (although I'm sure that's helpful in other areas), but that you need to make sure you're presenting yourself and your music the right way. Professionalism helps; a good-looking CD sleeve beats the hell out of a photocopied scrap of paper, even if the CD inside's still a CD-R. You'd be amazed at how hard it is for us reviewer folk to get past the immediate negative impression made by a crappy-ass-looking album. Laura Tsaggaris doesn't have that problem, mind you -- her CD, Proof, looks as beautiful as it sounds... [more]

Johnny Goudie feature picJohnny Goudie -- Boy In A Box
I recently got my hands on an advance copy of Johnny Goudie's Boy In A Box, which should be out by the time you read this review (Goudie, formerly a member of Endochine, is also producing the upcoming Canvas release due out in May). My first glimpse of Johnny was at his SideCar Pub show here in Houston many months ago, and I've been following him and catching his shows in town ever since. Goudie's music has a retro feel, but not so much of one that you can peg it easily. The seamless blend of guitar, organ/synthesizer, and percussion, and the slightly '50s quality to Goudie's voice is what gives it that flavor. Every song has a beautiful melodic quality, even "Back of a Magazine," which is much more rock than pop with its fast, driving guitar... [more]

Supagroup feature picSupagroup -- Supagroup
Supagroup rules.
On their self-titled CD, these New Orleans-based rockers play music like it should be played -- raw, aggressive, loose, energetic, and fun. Their Darkness/Wildhearts/Ramones vibe is a welcome alternative to the more technical, serious attitudes of many bands before them. What you hear is what you get -- pure, up-front rock, complete with catchy vocals, bold riffs, cuss words, and songs that are just the right length, causing the listener to hit the "repeat" button on the CD player... [more]



ALL REVIEWS:
THE A FRAMES
AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN
ARMOR FOR SLEEP
BLIND JACKSON
BLOOD MERIDIAN
BONE SIMPLE
MATT BOROFF
DAVID BRAKE & THAT DAMN BAND
BROOKFIELD
BUDAPEST ONE
TODY CASTILLO
DOUG CHEATWOOD
CLEM SNIDE
DASH RIP ROCK
JOHN DAVIS
CAMERON DEZEN
DINE ALONE
DMBQ
DOWNTOWN SINGAPORE
EARTHQUAKEBANG
EMMA LA REINA
ESTER DRANG
THE FREQUENCY
THE GOLDEN REPUBLIC
JOSH GOODE BAND
JOHNNY GOUDIE
JEAN GRAE
GRATITUDE
GREYSCALE
GRYP
ALEXANDER HACKE
HERMANO
HI RED CENTER
TAYLOR HOLLINGSWORTH
INFERNAL BRIDEGROOM PRODUCTIONS
IRENE
THE JEALOUS TYPE
JET BY DAY
SONDRE LERCHE
THE LOCUST
MAELEE WHITMAN
THE MAKERS
MANDO DIAO
THE MOLLY MAGUIRES
MORON PARADE
TRAVIS MORRISON
MURDOCKS
MY EDUCATION
NINJA GUN
NOFX
NTX + ELECTRIC
PITCH BLACK DREAM
PLANE
THE PLOT TO BLOW UP THE EIFFEL TOWER
ELVIS PRESLEY
PROSPEKT/KALYPSO LIPSTICH
KRIS RACER
SAGE FRANCIS
CARL SANDIN
THE SECRET MACHINES
SKY BLUE 72
SOUTHKILL
SPITALFIELD
SUPAGROUP
THIS IS EXPLODING
TRANSCENDENCE
TREASURE MAMMAL
TREEPHORT
LAURA TSAGGARIS
THE UNDERGROUND
USED ALIEN MIND
THE VANISHED
VAPOR
BOB WALL

TRACKS AND FIELDS

TOO PERFECT, TOO REAL




OVEREXPOSED:
 Sin City picToo Perfect, Too Real
Man, this is weird. As somebody who spent at least half his life so far as a comic book geek, I've yearned literally for years to see that one brilliant comic adaptation where the writers, directors, producers, and actors all get it just right. Now, with the long-awaited movie version of Frank Miller's Sin City, I've finally got my wish. This movie, in terms of being faithful to the comic, is freakin' perfect -- absolutely, slavishly, fanboyishly spot-on in every single conceivable way. I've been a big fan of Miller's work for years, and I honestly have never, ever, ever seen anything that can compare to this in terms of following the comic that's being adapted... [more]


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